As a school leaver, schoolies for me is an opportunity to spend time away with all of my mates and it also provides the framework for a chance to make new friendships. Unfortunatly it is in our culture that we need alcohol for situations like this. I am of course guilty of using alcohol in this way and am not intending to preech- more so try and understand why alcohol is used in this way.

Yesterday was my first day at schoolies on the gold coast.  The day started with the drive from at home in Byron to the gold coast with my mates. Driving through cavill for the first time was insane. Drunk schoolies cover all the balconies and chants echo between the different buildings. One of the most obvious things is that alcohol is used by many of us males as a way to meet girls. Alcohol inspires confidence in us and let’s us do things that we would otherwise be less likely to do. This is not necessarilly a good thing but.  ”tits out for the boys”

Once we arrived at our hotel we were drilled by the manager and warned of everything we were not to do. Then the drinking began…

There was never any intention amongst my mates to just have a couple. We were getting smashed, in the pursuit of a good night. As a schoolie the pressure to drink is absolutly ridiculous. Even as I sit here this morning writing my mates are trying to force beers on me. It’s so much easier to jsut give in and drink than to mAke a change to the drinking culture and resist.

Cavill during the night at schoolies is insane. 35000 school leaver walking the streets and for the most part having a good time. The exception to having a good time is often fueled by the abuse of alcohol. As I watched a guy vomiting and his friends trying to help him this became obvious..

The night ended rather quickly and before I knew it I was back at the hotel in bed.

Hello Sunday morning.

DAY 2.

Day two of scoolies was a somewhat different experience than the first day. The main cause of this difference was how drunk my mates got to “get loose enough so we can dance an talk to chicks”. I don’t understand why it’s in our culture that we need alcohol for these situations. Not only are my mates all hungover but they also wasted most of the money that they had left for the rest of the week. Nothing good has eventuated from getting so boozed.

The beech parties finished so early last night and we were left with nothing to do and a belly full of booze. Not a good thing I would have to say. We had to get back to southport from cavill and no taxis want to pick up a group of schoolies guys for fear that we would do a runner on them. This lead us to walk the whole way home. Walked in the door at 430 this morning. None of my mates remember to much about the evening and yet they still feel like it was a good night and are keen to do it again tonight.

DAY 3 Reflections

“The opportunity of a lifetime”

I’m up a little early today. My mates are all kind of sprawl’d out over the living room and I have moused my way onto the kitchen and I am now enjoying a glass of coke while I type this out.

Day three of Schoolies was all police, booze and McDonalds. This may not sound like a good combination but the day it produced was spectacular for both me and my mates.

The choice to drink for me on this occasion came from the fact that my girlfriend came up for the night and encouraged me to also do so. Although I tried my best to abstain this evening, she can be very persuasive.

I caved in and had a couple before we went out. The thing is though, I found being sober the other night just as fun as when I had a couple under my belt. Quite interesting cause I find that when I’m out and sober I can kinda feed off other people’s energy and their confidence seems to take me to another level.

We headed out to the beach at around 9 from our apartment. The bus ride to the beach was crazy, there were so many drunk Schoolies on the bus it was ridiculous.  Everywhere I looked a Schoolie was there and they had made the decision to get drunk whether it was for confidence or just seeking a good time.

The beach parties are pretty much the same every night. Loads of people the same age out and dancing on the beach and just generally having a good time.

When the beach party finished at around 1am we all headed to McDonalds. Sadly, I was denied entry because I had lost my shirt in the madness. Which is seriously disappointing…

After being denied food it was time to head home with an empty stomach and an intense craving for the left-over pizza in the fridge. We arrived home at about 2am with my mates and immediately some of them headed back out to go and get more drunk because they felt like they were missing out on ” the opportunity of a lifetime”.

Twenty minutes later I receive the call ” dude I just got a hundred dollar fine for drinking in public”. Yet this morning my mate was so happy about this. Think he must still be a bit drunk…

Can’t wait for tonight.